back and forth we ply these oars
by counterpunch
Summary: Frozen Anna Week Day 1 prompt: Young Anna, sneaking out


She's sleeping, dreaming of…horses? there are horses? when all of a sudden, a finger is poking her face.

"Hey."

"Hey."

Anna swats vaguely around her face.

"Anna," the finger says.

"Go'way," she mumbles before turning over and burying her head back into her pillow.

"Anna!" The finger persists.

"_Whaaaaaaat_," she moans.

"Anna, wake up!"

She cracks an eye open and sees Elsa leaning above her with a mischievous smile on her face."The sky's awake."

Anna knows what that smile means and in an instant she's wide awake, humming with anticipation.

"C'mon," Elsa says, pulling Anna out of bed and down the corridor, "C'mon, c'mon!"

Sneaking through the castle after dark never fails to shoot a thrill down her spine. It seems bigger almost, full of secrets and moonlight.

She can't help the excitement from bubbling and Elsa tries to quiet her squeals even as she bursts with it, too.

After twists and turns that Anna can't keep track of, eventually they emerge in the garden courtyard, slipping out of a passageway from somewhere behind the willow tree. Her eyes open wide at the scene before her- the courtyard, filled with stars. She opens her hand in awe and reaches up to touch the lights and gasps as they bounce away.

"They're fireflies," Elsa says from behind her.

"Wow," Anna breathes in wonder.

Elsa leaps, trapping one between her hands, and cracks open her palms just a bit so Anna can see. "Make a wish," she says.

Anna squeezes her eyes shut and thinks really really hard. She nods when she's ready and Elsa spreads her arms open wide with a flourish, and they watch the firefly twinkle away, disappearing into the night.

"C'mon! Let's catch 'em!" Elsa jumps forward with a jar, swooping up a handful of lights. Anna looks back up to find her wish, but its already gone.

They whoop and giggle, trying to shepherd the bugs into the glass, flapping their arms and jumping and before long, they hold a glowing jar of starshine in their hands.

Anna's exhilarated, but the night isn't over yet.

"C'mon!" Elsa says again as she grasps Anna's hand tightly and pulls her back toward the castle.

The corridors seem different going backwards. Anna giggles and hugs the jar tighter as she casts the shadows farther away. Finally, Elsa pulls her into the library. The books feel like silent tombstones, sentinels of worlds sitting on the shelves, and Anna feels very small beneath them.

But Elsa's holding her hand, a jar of starlight is in-between them, and Anna feels big again. How could she not? After all, she's holding the moon.

Anna drags a stool over to the bookshelves and holds it steady while Elsa climbs up to grab a book - the one with a red leather spine, the one with the best stories, the one they didn't finish because Mama said it was time for lessons (but Anna doesn't like lessons. She learns so much more when Elsa teaches her things instead. Like the fastest route to to sneak to the kitchens, how to ride a bike, the names of the constellations, or the best way to do a somersault. Elsa reads to her too, for hours outside during the summer and weeks during the winter, and the seasons pass between pages of the books).

But Mama is nowhere to be found, and its just the two of them against the night. Anna settles back into Elsa as she peels open the book. The jar sits in Anna's lap, illuminating the pages, and when Elsa opens her mouth to read, the world is made of magic.

She doesn't know when she falls asleep but Anna wakes up in her own bed the next morning with sleep foggy in her eyes. She yawns and stretches in the sunlight streaming through the window.

Elsa is still asleep in her bed, the jar is empty, sitting on the window seat, and Anna wonders if it was all just a dream.

She slips out from under the covers and pitter-patters over the the window. Hoisting herself up, she unscrews the jar and pouts. There's not a single firefly inside.

"I let them out after you fell asleep," Elsa says sleepily from her bed.

"But why?" Anna asks disappointed.

Elsa sits up, "Because," she says, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her palm, "It's not good for things to be trapped with nowhere to go."

"But-"

"It's okay," Elsa reassures her with a smile, "We can get more another night!"

"Promise?"

"Promise."

But by the end of the summer, Anna's is the only bed in the room, when the sky's awake no one's there to share it with her, and there are no more jars of starshine.

She tries to collect them herself, but it takes twice as long to get fewer bugs and the jar doesn't glow nearly as brightly when it's only half full.

Anna still uses it to read at night - but not the book with the red leather spine with the best stories in it because its not the same unless Elsa's the one reading it.

But she always makes sure to let the fireflies go at the end of the night.

Sometimes, she'll turn around to look at the castle. And there, through the window that is now Elsa's (middle right, two from the left) , she can _just_ spot a jar to match her own. It's hard to make out from far away, the light is dim and its hard to see, but…it's enough.

Anna beams - her insides are glowing like the fireflies, so she releases her own jar, watching as they drift away, and makes a wish.


End file.
